The Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), found on video cards and as part of display systems, is a specialized processor that can rapidly execute commands for manipulating and displaying images. GPU-accelerated computing offers faster performance across a broad range of design, animation, and video applications.
This means that you get a significant performance boost: InDesign runs faster and more smoothly than ever before.

System requirements

To use GPU Performance, your Mac should have a minimum of 1024 MB of VRAM (2 GB recommended), and your computer must support OpenGL version 4.0 or greater.

What is the benefit of GPU for InDesign?

HiDPI monitors are becoming the standard. With the high monitor resolutions, it is getting difficult for CPU to handle the rendering.

Also, InDesign’s default display performance has always been set to Typical Quality. Due to this you do not see the images placed in the document in their full fidelity. This was done to provide you with optimum performance when you perform operations like zooming, scrolling, panning etc.

This is where the GPU comes into play. Rendering on high-density displays is best handled by the GPU. GPU acceleration makes the rendering of the documents faster while zooming, scrolling, and panning. With the GPU enhancements, InDesign now shows images in their fullest fidelity without compromising the performance.

If your system has a compatible GPU card, InDesign renders the document using the GPU by default and sets the Display Performance to High Quality.

The enhanced performance from using the GPU in InDesign powers features like Animated Zoom which make zoom actions smooth and animated. Here is how it works:

Select the zoom tool (Z), and do one of the following:

Press and hold down the mouse button (long press) to zoom in to the center. Press Option and hold down the mouse button (long press) to zoom out.

Press and drag the pointer to the right to zoom in or to the left to zoom out.

Press Shift to switch to marquee zoom mode.

Enable GPU Performance

After making sure your computer meets the system requirements for GPU Performance, follow these instructions to enable the feature in InDesign.

In the application bar, click the GPU Performance icon to display the GPU Performance settings in the Preferences panel.